WikiLeaks takes the pain out of sharing government secrets

Late last year we reported on an interesting information sharing approach under consideration by the nation's intelligence agencies. Based on the popular Wikipedia model, agents hope to cultivate what is known as the "hive mind" to efficiently share and cull data from varied sources. A good idea, we thought at the time. But it turns out that two can play at this game, and now intelligence agents have a choice: they can share their data with the CIA's Intellipedia, or they can anonymously provide it to the media and government watchdog groups via WikiLeaks. Inspired by the jailing of a Chinese journalist in 2005, the Web site is intended for use in China, Russia, Eurasia, the Middle East, and sub-Saharan Africa. Corporations may also be targeted.

Concerns about anonymity are first and foremost, because if the system is not secure it is worthless. In order to prevent IP address tracing, WikiLeaks uses an anonymising protocol known as The Onion Router (Tor), which routes data through a network of secure, encrypted servers to hide the leaker's trail. "Imagine a large room jammed full of people in which many of them are passing around envelopes," said security guru Bruce Schneier. "How would you know where any of them started?" Not everyone, however, is convinced that Tor is as secure as some say, and some worry that the system might be overwhelmed by insincere users. "The initiative could drown in fabricated documents, pornographic records or become hijacked to serve vendettas," warns Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists in Washington, D.C.

WikiLeaks is currently raising funds and testing its software. It hopes to launch in February.

-read more in Paul Marks's New Scientist report; visit the WikiLeaks Web